Deployment diary day 18: Thursday 4th February

This morning we had a lovely start to the day. One of the new team members, Evelyn, has come to fill the 'Emotional and Spiritual Care' role. If the term is new to you, it means that she is our team Chaplain and 'mother' to some of the younger guys. Her other role is to ensure that we spend time in team devotions each morning before we start our days' work. This morning Evelyn started by reading verses from Psalm 63. It starts, 'God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no water'. That verse took on new meaning for me as I thought of the intensity in the queues when we distribute water. The way people push and shove in desperation to be given just a gallon jug of water for their families. Evelyn reminded us of our need to approach God in that way for His refreshment - and to do so daily. In this situation, where life is so hectic and draining, it was a very pertinent start to our day.

Yesterday we announced to our team members that we felt we were moving into 'phase 2' of the relief operation. Partly this was because we are moving from short term deployments and seeing new team members arriving who will be here for 2 months. Partly it was because we have transferred our Command centre into the new Divisional headquarters. And the other reason was that we are seeing a change in the distribution programme for us and the NGO community. Our distributions are taking a new shape. Today we took a truck full of food and tents to a number of our nearby corps - places where no aid has yet reached. This will form a regular feature of our programme for the next few weeks.

One other programme I've not mentioned often is our orphanage support programme. We have been blessed with a number of volunteers who have just made their way to Haiti, shown up and asked if we could use their help. One of these is Mike from the USA. He came with a passion to seek out orphanages and see to see if they need help. We thought that was a great idea and asigned an officer to work with him. Together they have assessed a number of sites and we have released food and tents where they are needed. In the last 2 weeks Mike has been able to deliver 45,000 meals to help children who are without the care of parents. They truly are God's children and we honour Mike and his ministry.

You might like to check out the few pics that I have added to the right of this blog - I mentioned the young man scavenging in the refuse canal yesterday.

By the way, many of you were alerted to the work of The Salvation Army through the powerful and emotional news interviews that featured Bob Poff - the Divisional Emergency Director. For the last couple of weeks Vicky, his wife, has been very poorly and hospitalised in the USA. Today Bob received the great news that she is well enough to leave hospital - we thank God for answered prayer.